Grasping vs. Giving

Friday, February 26th, 2010 | Lent Meditations

⁵Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
⁶Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
⁷but made himself nothing,
taking the very natureof a servant,
being made in human likeness.
⁸And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
⁹Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
¹⁰that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
-Philippians 2:5-11

Jesus is the ultimate example of humility. The verses above show, displayed in Jesus’ life, the pattern of humility > submission to God’s plan > God lifting us up that we talked about earlier this week in the meditation on 1 Peter 5:6.

Henri Nouwen calls this “The Descending Way”. He writes, “The love of God has become visible in Jesus… in the descending way. That is the great mystery of the Incarnation. God has descended to us human beings to become a human being with us; and once among us, descended to the total dereliction of one condemned to death. It isn’t easy really to feel and understand from the inside this descending way of Jesus. Every fiber of our being rebels against it.”

And every fiber does rebel! Often we are so consumed by the desire to grasp on to our rights—what we believe we deserve and are entitled to—that we miss out on this process of humility and exaltation. Yet the Bible says that Jesus, who was “in very nature God,” did not consider his “equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing”. The One who actually deserved everything emptied himself out for us, giving instead of grasping. This is the Descending Way.

Father God, thank you for the gift of Jesus. Please give me the courage and faith to join Jesus on the descending way, giving generously instead of grasping, trusting You to fill me up so that I can be poured out. In Jesus name, Amen.

Tags: Lent 2010